Volvo Ocean Race- Camper completes testing and heads for Europe

Boat testing for the Volvo 70, Camper, sailed by Emirates Team New Zealand, has ended.

After sailing 8,000 nautical miles in the last three months, Camper has been lifted out of the water and is being decommissioned before shipping to Europe later this month. Camper was launched in April, since then the team has taken on a schedule, which has included a tour of New Zealand, the Auckland Fiji race, their 2000 mile qualification sail and many offshore sailing trips.

Camper/Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Chris Nicholson says: 'Our testing phase in New Zealand is complete we have sailed 8,000 nautical miles since April. We’ve sailed from the tropics to the edge of the Southern Ocean, so it’s been a great opportunity for us to really push Camper in a wide range of true race conditions. With our time in New Zealand now drawing to a close, we have new goals now for Europe leading up to the starting line'.

The sailing team will remain in Auckland until the end of July to finalise details on the sail inventory and other areas ahead of the race.

'We have a lot of work to do over the next few days before we ship the boat to Europe', he added. 'We will analyse all the data that has been collated over three months of testing. Will Oxley and Andrew McLean have been working on the analysis, looking at every possible option for sails, loads, speed and overall performance in different conditions'

'While we’ve been working from constant updates on this throughout the testing period, this is a chance for the whole team to sit down and look through everything and make some final decisions,' Chris Nicholson said.

Just three months remain until the start in Alicante, the team will have some time off over August before they re-group in Europe in early September. Camper will undergo further sail testing during her delivery from the UK to Spain, after which the team will sail to Camper’s headquarters in Palma for corporate activity before their arrival in Alicante at the end of September.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 is due to start on the 29 October in Alicante, Spain and will finish in Galway, Ireland in July 2012.